- How Genesis Was Written
- The Testimony of Babylonian Cities
- The Witness of the Promised Land
- The New Testament Bears Witness
- The New Testament Corroborates the Old
- The Bible Reveals God’s Plan
Chapter I
THE BIBLE
is the textbook of Christianity. Christ accepted the Old Testament
Scriptures as the Word of God; he was guided in his ministry by their
instructions and comforted by their promises. Jesus’ apostles shared
his confidence in the truthfulness of the Old Testament Scriptures; and
in addition to the teachings and example of Jesus, they, like him,
based their teachings on the Old Testament. The New Testament is in
reality an explanatory supplement to the Old Testament, so that for
Christians the Old and New Testaments together are an infallible
revelation of the plans and purposes of the Creator with respect to his
human creatures.
This understanding and acceptance of the
Bible as the Word of God was quite general by all professed Christians
until the nineteenth century, when in the minds of many inroads of
doubt began to be made by the assertions of the Higher Critics, and the
theory of human evolution. To the Higher Critics most of the historical
records of the Old Testament have no basis in fact, but are merely
allegories, myths, and fables. According to the theory of human
evolution God did not create Adam and Eve, and there never was a Garden
of Eden; but instead, man is said to have evolved from lower forms of
animals.
Thus seen, higher criticism and the theory of
human evolution have been as frontal attacks on the validity of the
Holy Scriptures. However, in the minds of honest and thinking people
this trend toward unbelief in the infallibility of the Bible is
gradually being reversed. This is being brought about by the spade and
the pick of the archeologist. Archeologists began their work of
exploring the lands of the Bible about the middle of the nineteenth
century, some even before this. J. E. Taylor; Paul Botta; A. H. Layard;
Henry Rawlinson, were among the pioneers in excavating the ruins of
cities mentioned in the Bible.
This work continued with varying degrees of
enthusiasm until it was halted almost entirely by the outbreak of the
First World War. Following the war it was resumed and, while slowed
down considerably by the Second World War, the archeologists continue
to find outstanding proofs of the validity of one after another of the
historical accounts of the Old Testament. For example, the Bible speaks
of Abraham’s living in a city by the name of Ur. It was claimed by
doubters that no such city ever existed, but the archeologists have
proved that this conclusion was wrong, for they have discovered the
ancient city of Ur, and in the locality where the Bible places it. The
city of Nineveh, where the people repented as a result of the message
the Prophet Jonah presented to them from the Lord, has also been
discovered.
One of the claims made by the Higher Critics
was that Moses could not have written the first five books of the Old
Testament, for the art of writing was not known at the time the Bible
indicates that Moses lived. Now we know that writing was in vogue in
the days of Moses. We quote from “New Discoveries in Babylonia”:
“Nearly a thousand years before Abraham was born and a millennium and a
half before the birth of Moses, Lugalzaggisi, King of Erech, began his
inscriptions with words which do not differ greatly from those used by
the last king of Babylon, 2,200 years later.”—p.38
It is believed that probably the earliest
form of writing was by means of ordinary pictures, which the ancients
used to convey their thoughts on stone or clay. Pictures are used today
on roadway signs throughout Europe. The Hebrew verb “to write” means to
“cut” or “dig.” The ancients cut their messages mostly on clay tablets
which they later baked in the sun to make them durable.
Ordinary cuneiform writing became quite
general in the early ages. Thousands of clay tablets have been found
which, according to the archeologists, were written before the
Patriarchal Age. More than a quarter of a million cuneiform clay
tablets have been distributed among the various museums of the world.
This writing technique was used, not only for keeping family and
business records, but also to communicate information on very ordinary
matters to distant friends and relatives.
For example, a letter by a woman to her
husband was discovered, informing him that the children were well, and
asking advice on a trivial matter. Also discovered was a letter by a
son to his father informing him that someone had greatly offended him,
and that he wanted to thrash this person, but first was seeking the
father’s advice. All this indicates that at that early time the people
not only were able to write, but also that an efficient postal system
of communication had been developed. “Writing material was cheap, which
may account in part for the fact that the Sumerians, Babylonians, and
Assyrians seemed unwilling to transact even the smallest items of
business without recourse to a written document.”—Luckenbill’s Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, pf.
In the Book of Job-which was written, as most
scholars now believe, in the Patriarchal Age—we find a reference to the
use of a “seal”: “It is changed as clay under a seal.” (Job 38:14, Revised Standard Version)
Judah carried a seal about with him, and Joseph was given Pharaoh’s
seal ring. (Gen. 91:42) “At Ur of the Chaldees Sir Leonard Woolley
found seals owned by men who lived before the Flood. The use of this
seal impression was the equivalent of the modern signature. When the
owner’s seal had been impressed upon the clay, the tablet, if written
by a scribe, had sometimes written on it the name of the owner of the
tablet. I have in my possession tablets sealed over 4,000 years ago.”—New Discoveries in Babylonia, p. 42
It would seem from all the archeological
evidence that man has been acquainted with the art of writing from
essentially the time of his creation. In the development of the art of
writing the ancients first used tablets of soft clay on which they
impressed their messages. Stone tablets were later used, and then
papyrus on which the message could be written with ink. There is good
evidence, we think, that the Book of Genesis was first written on clay
tablets. The Ten Commandments were written on tablets of stone, and in
a sense similar to the ancient Babylonian tablets, in that they were
written on both sides.—Exod. 32:15
While many clay tablets have been discovered
which were written before the Flood, as yet the archeologists have not
unearthed tablets on which are recorded any part or parts of the Book
of Genesis. However, there are scholars who call our attention to
strong internal evidence in the composition of Genesis to indicate that
it was written in sections on clay tablets, and that these sections
were kept together and finally came into the possession of Moses who
used them in composing nearly all of that part of Genesis with which he
was not personally acquainted.
This internal evidence is found principally
in the expression, “These are the generations of.” Many suppose that
this expression is an introduction to a new section of the book.
However, based on the style and customs of records of other things
written on clay tablets in that early period, many scholars have
concluded that the expression, “These are the generations of” indicates
the completion of a section.
The Hebrew word translated “generations” in this expression is Toledoth.
Gesenius, a critical Hebrew scholar, explains this word to mean,
“History, especially family history, since the earliest history among
oriental nations is drawn from genealogical registers of families.”
Prof. Strong gives “history” as a figurative meaning of Toledah.
This key expression appears first in Genesis
2:4. The text reads, “These are the generations of the heavens and the
earth when they were created, in the day in which the Lord God made the
earth and the heavens.” Certainly this is a reference to the preceding
record of creation, not to anything which follows. In chapter I the
expression, “And God said,” frequently appears. The writer of this
chapter acknowledges that he had no personal knowledge of what he was
describing, and that he received his information directly from the
Creator.
Genesis 5:1 reads, “This is the book of the
generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness
of God made he him.” Here again the reference is clearly to the
contents of chapters 2 through 4, because the chapters following have
nothing to say concerning Adam except that he lived 930 years and begat
sons and daughters. Adam was personally acquainted with the facts set
forth in chapters 2-4, so the expression, “And God said,” no longer
appears. Clearly, then, in these chapters we have the “book” or written
record which was either written by Adam, or written by someone else and
possessed by Adam.
Genesis 6:9 reads, “These are the generations
of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah
walked with God.” This covers the record from chapter 5:1b to 6:9a. In
this period Seth and Methuselah lived contemporaneously for 355 years.
Obviously, then, this section of Genesis ascribed to Noah contains
information which was readily available to him, either through personal
contacts with those involved, or from those who possessed the necessary
firsthand information.
The other names attached to the succeeding
portions of Genesis are “the sons of Noah,” “Shem,” “Terah,” “Ishmael,”
“Isaac,” “Esau,” and “Jacob.” The record following that section of
Genesis to which Jacob’s name is attached deals more particularly with
the story of Joseph, the circumstances that took him into Egypt, and
his rise to favor and power under Pharaoh. Those associated with the
royalty of Egypt were well educated, and without doubt a record of
Joseph’s rise to power as food administrator in a time of dire national
stress was chronicled, probably oil papyrus by this time.
There is a long lapse in the records of the
Hebrews following the death of Jacob. After all, they became slaves in
Egypt, and who would be interested in writing about them? Finally Moses
appeared on the scene, and became learned in all the wisdom of the
Egyptians. It is not difficult to believe that Jacob took the whole
series of tablets beginning with the creation into Egypt with him, and
that devout Hebrews treasured and cared for them, and that later they
came into the hands of Moses, and were used by him in compiling the
first thirty-six chapters of Genesis.
Another internal proof that the first
thirty-six chapters of Genesis were originally inscribed on clay
tablets and were used by Moses in compiling the book, is seen in
certain brief editorial explanations he makes. Note these in Genesis,
chapter 14: “Bela, which is Zoar,” verses 2 and 8; “Vale of Siddim,
which is the salt sea,” verse 3; “Enmishpat, which is Kadesh,” verse 7;
“Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus,” verse 15; and “Valley
of Shaveh, which is the King’s Dale,” verse 17.
In Genesis 23:2 we read, “Sarah died in
Kirjath-arba, the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan.” This is very
revealing as affirming that this chapter was originally written at a
very early date; certainly before the Israelites had entered the land
after the Exodus. The Israelites must have known it quite well after
its capture in Joshua’s day. It was given to Caleb for an inheritance,
and under the Law was made one of the cities of refuge.
The fact that Moses thought it essential to
give the current names of certain locations, and, as in the case of
Hebron, to explain also where it was located, is strong evidence that
he was copying the records from writings available to him. And it would
also indicate that in compiling these records into a whole, he was
loyal to the original text, giving only the additional up-to-date
information which he considered essential for clarity.
Before leaving this aspect of our subject, we
wish merely to observe that it has been only by the diligent study of
styles and methods of writing on tablets that the expression, “These
are the generations of” which appears in the first thirty-six chapters
of Genesis, provides such clear proof that the art of writing was known
and used, at least for the purpose of keeping records, from before the
Flood.
It will be noted that the records pertaining
to pre-Flood days are much more brief than those of the post-Flood
period. This would seem to indicate—and this is not surprising—that the
early art of writing was not so well-developed as it became in later
times. In any case, we rejoice that archeologists have furnished us
with this additional evidence of the validity of the first thirty-six
chapters of Genesis.
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Chapter II
THE LANDS
of Shinar and Asshur referred to in the Bible comprised the general
area known ‘as Mesopotamia, meaning “the land between the rivers.” This
ancient country is now called Iraq, although a small section of its
northern point is in Turkey. In earlier times the southern section of
the country was known as Babylonia, and the northern area as Assyria.
Still earlier, the southern plain was called Sumer, and the northerly,
Accad. The area is approximately 600 miles long and 250 miles broad. It
is, generally speaking, a flat land through which flow two great
rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates.
This area has long been considered by
scholars as the cradle of the human race, and it is here that certain
important cities mentioned in the Bible were located. Ur is one of
these. To believers in the Bible the city of Ur is important because
the patriarch Abraham sojourned there. Genesis 11:31 reads, “And Terah
took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son’s son, and Sarai
his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went forth with
them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they
came unto Haran, and dwelt there.”
The reason Abram, or Abraham, left Ur to go
to Canaan is stated in the first three verses of Genesis 12: “Now the
Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy
father’s house, unto a land [Canaan] that I will show thee: and I will
make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name
great; and thou shalt be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless
thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families
of the earth be blessed.” In the New Testament the Apostle Paul
explains that this promise which God made to Abram was in reality a
statement of the Gospel of Christ: God “preached before the Gospel unto
Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.”—Gal. 3:8
For a long time higher critics of the Bible
insisted that no such person as Abraham ever lived; that the stories
told in the Bible about him were merely allegories, or fairy tales,
including the account of his leaving the city of Ur. No such city as Ur
ever existed, these critics claimed. The claims of these unbelieving
critics destroyed the faith of many in the validity of the Holy
Scriptures. Since God’s promise to Abraham was in reality an early
statement of the Gospel, the Gospel would have no real foundation in
fact if God’s reported dealings with and promises to Abraham are merely
allegories.
In this period of the Christian age when
frontal assaults are being made on the Bible by higher critics and
others, it is most reassuring to learn that archeologists are
discovering one after another of the ancient landmarks mentioned in the
sacred Word, and among them, the city of Ur. Today Ur is a railway
station 120 miles north of Basra, near the Persian Gulf, and one of the
many stops on the Baghdad railway. When the passengers alight from the
train at this stop they do not, of course, see the ancient city of Ur.
What they do see is a red mound, and it is this mound that led the
archeologists to the discovery of the city of Ur nearby.
This mound was known to the Arabs as “Tell al
Muqayyar.” In ancient times when cities were destroyed by enemies or by
storms they would be rebuilt upon their ruins. As this process
continued the cities would become elevated. Ultimately they would be
abandoned, and the whole elevation would in time be covered with sand
or earth. The word “tell” was used to denote the difference between
these more or less artificially made elevations and the natural hills.
Arriving at Tell al Muqayyar in 1923 was a
group of archeologists from the British Museum and the University of
Pennsylvania. In charge of the expedition was Sir Charles Leonard
Woolley. Back about the middle of the nineteenth century an
archeologist named Taylor, arriving at Tell al Muqayyar, was impressed
by the height of the great mound and started his men working from its
sides and top. It turned out that he had discovered a great religious
tower and sanctuary which, as was later learned, contained a shrine for
the moon god of Ur.
However, great strides had been made in the
science of archeology from the time Taylor’s men picked away at Tell al
Muqayyar until Woolley and his expedition arrived at the same location
in 1923. Woolley’s trained eye noted the smaller mounds that arose all
around him and it was these that he decided to investigate, rather than
the large mound. Werner Keller wrote, “Similar mounds exist in great
numbers, large and small in the Middle East, on the banks of the great
rivers, in the midst of fertile plains, by the wayside on the routes
followed by caravans from time immemorial. No one has yet been able to
count them. We find them from the delta of the Euphrates and Tigris on
the Persian Gulf to the highlands of Asia Minor where the river Halys
tumbles into the Black Sea, on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean,
in the valleys of Lebanon, on the Orontes in Syria, and in Palestine by
the Jordan.
“These little eminences are great quarries
for archeological finds, eagerly sought and often inexhaustible. They
are not formed by the hand of Nature but are artificially created,
piled high with the legacy of countless generations that came before;
vast masses of rubble and rubbish from a bygone age that have
accumulated from the remains of huts and houses, town walls, temples,
and palaces.”—The Bible as History, pp. 14,15
Beginning in 1923 the Anglo-American
Archeological Expedition under Woolley worked for three winters
excavating the mounds surrounding Tell al Muqayyar. And then, as we
read beginning on page 18 of The Bible as History, “Under the
red slopes of Tell al Muqayyar lay a whole city, bathed in the bright
sunshine, awakened from its long sleep after many thousand years by the
patient burrowing of the archeologists. Woolley and his companions were
beside themselves with joy. For before them lay Ur, the ‘Ur of the
Chaldees’ to which the Bible refers.”
From the limited references given to us in
the Bible it would appear that Ur of the Chaldees was not Abraham’s
home city. Ur was in southern Mesopotamia and on the west of the
Euphrates. This river is sometimes referred to in the Bible as “the
flood.” Joshua said to the Israelites, “Your fathers dwelt on the other
side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham and
the father of Nachor.” (Josh. 24:2) When Abraham sent his servant
Eliezer to seek a bride for Isaac the servant was specifically
instructed to go to Abraham’s own people, and he “went to Mesopotamia,
unto the city of Nahor.”—Gen. 24:4,10
It would appear that for some reason Abraham
and his father and other relatives had traveled from northern
Mesopotamia to Ur, and that when they left Ur to go to Canaan, the land
which God had promised to Abraham and his posterity, they traveled
north to Haran first. Haran might well have been Abraham’s home city,
and he remained there until the death of his father. Perhaps he wanted
to bury his father among his own people.
While the route from Ur to the Promised Land
through Haran was a long one, had Abraham and his family attempted to
travel the shortest route they would have been forced to cross what is
now the Arabian Desert, which, no doubt would have been practically
impossible, especially since he took his flocks and herds with him. The
city of Ur was surrounded by rich grazing land, and it was here that
Abraham pursued his occupation as a farmer, while possibly living in
the prosperous, well-appointed city of Ur.
Abraham’s birthplace was probably in the
ancient kingdom of Mari. Haran and Nahor were cities within this
kingdom. The city of Mari was one of the largest and richest of that
period. It contained superb housing, and a richly appointed palace
containing hundreds of rooms and courtyards. This was the palace of the
kings of Mari. This mammoth building covered nearly ten acres. It was
the most enormous building the archeologists had yet brought to light.
Clay tablets by the thousand were dug up in
this ancient metropolis. These tablets confirm the existence of the
progenitors of Abraham. The Bible says: “Peleg lived thirty years, and
begat Reu; … and Reu lived two and thirty years, and begat Serug: … and
Serug lived thirty years, and begat Nahor: … and Nahor lived nine and
twenty years, and begat Terah: … and Terah lived seventy years and
begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.”—Gen. 11:18-26
“Names of Abraham’s forefathers emerge from
these dark ages as names of cities in northwest Mesopotamia. They lie
in Padan-Aram, the plain of Aram. In the center of this plain lies
Haran, which, according to its description, must have been a
flourishing city. … Haran, the home of Abraham, father of the
patriarchs, the birthplace of the Hebrew people, is here for the first
time historically attested, for contemporary texts refer to it. Further
up the same Balikh valley lay the city with an equally well-known
biblical name, Nahor, the home of Rebecca, wife of Isaac.”—The Bible as History, pp. 51,52
Thus the information found on the clay
tablets unearthed in the kingdom of Mari are found to produce further
evidence that the accounts of the patriarchs which are presented in the
Bible are not merely legends. They are true historical records of God’s
dealings with his chosen people. It is these records which furnish us
with a reliable foundation for the great theme of God’s love in his
promised blessing of all the families of the earth, as he gave it to
father Abraham.
The excavation of the ruins of ancient
cities—cities that existed in the days of Abraham, and even
before—reveals that a high state of civilization existed at that time.
The late Prof. Palmer Hall Langdon of the Institute of Metals, London,
upon his return from extensive work in Mesopotamia in 1929, described
his findings of a great “flood deposit” at a considerable depth, and of
the layers below it, which contain relics of the civilization which
thrived there before that event. We quote from his article which then
appeared in the London Times:
“Below this Flood layer was another,
thirteen feet in thickness. In the lower part of this stratum were
found the remains of brick buildings, which had been abandoned and
silted up for many feet … in which were brick tombs. … This layer thus
represented two periods—the earlier, when buildings were erected near
its base; the later, when, after these buildings had been silted up,
these shafts were sunk into it for the great tombs. In this layer
[below the flood layer] were found a number of objects of copper,
silver and gold, stone bowls, and a quantity of unpainted pottery.”
How vividly this reminds us of the statement
concerning Tubal-cain that he was “an instructor of every artificer in
brass and iron.” (Gen. 4:22) Of Jubal the Bible states, “He was the
father of all such as handle the harp and organ.” (Gen. 4:21) These
brief bits of information indicate that the people of that. day, only a
few short years after man’s fall into sin and death, were indeed
intelligent and civilized. And now the spade and pick of the
archeologist confirm this.
Evidences of a high degree of civilization in
ancient times are further confirmed by the findings of Woolley in
excavating the ruins of the ancient city of Ur. Sumerian temples,
workshops, law courts, and beautiful dwellings were discovered. He also
discovered “the graves of the kings of Ur.” These stone vaults were
nothing short of priceless treasure chests, for they were filled with
the glamorous and costly things which were to be found in Ur at that
time.
There were golden drinking cups, exquisitely
shaped jugs and vases. There was bronze tableware, and musical
instruments. It is said that even the tomb of Tutankhamen was no richer
in its contents. These treasures were not the products of a half-man,
half-ape sort of creature. They reveal again that man had been created
perfect, possessing a high intelligence; that he sinned and was
condemned to die, and that through the millennia since, his
retrogression has continued. Thus Paul’s statement in I Corinthians
15:21, “As in Adam all die,” is confirmed.
Woolley had his men continue to dig, even
below the graves of the kings: In his diary he wrote concerning this
further effort: “Almost at once discoveries were made which confirmed
our suspicions [that the tombs were not located on virgin soil].
Directly under the floor of one of the tombs of the kings we found in a
layer of charred wood ash numerous clay tablets, which were covered
with characters of a much older type than the inscriptions on the
graves. Judging by the nature of the writing the tablets could be
assigned to about 3,000 B.C. They were therefore two or three centuries
earlier than the tombs.”
So Woolley instructed his men to continue
their digging. As they went deeper and deeper, new strata, with
fragments of jars, pots, and bowls, kept appearing. However, the
pottery remained the same. It was exactly like that which was found in
the graves of the kings. The experts gathered from this that Sumerian
civilization had remained essentially the same for a long time. Their
high level of civilization was reached at a very early date indeed.
Finally, as the men continued to dig, some of
them reported to Woolley that they had found ground level—the virgin
soil. Woolley made a personal inspection and found, as he thought, that
the report of his men was correct. But as he prodded the ground himself
just to make sure, he received a great surprise. He discovered that it
was not the nature of the ground common to the area, but sand—pure
sand, of a kind that could only have been deposited by water.
How could there be mud in a place like this,
he thought. At first he concluded that it must be the accumulated silt
of the river Euphrates at a time when it flowed near the ancient city
of Ur, for it is believed that this river did at one time flow very
close to this ancient and famous city. But upon further reflection he
ruled out this possibility, one reason being that the level of the sand
deposit was much too high to permit of this explanation of its being
there. Woolley said, “I saw that we were much too high up. It was most
unlikely that the island on which the first; settlement was built stood
up so far out of the marsh.”
No, the mud could not be river deposit.
Woolley could not find an explanation, nor could his associates, so he
decided to have his men dig down into this mud deposit. Deeper and
deeper they sank their spades, with nothing but pure mud showing up.
When they reached a depth of nearly ten feet the layer of mud ended as
suddenly as it had begun.
Naturally the diggers supposed that now at
last they had reached the real virgin soil, but instead, what they
found was rubble, ancient rubbish, and potsherds. What did this mean?
Simply that below the mud deposit of nearly ten feet they had
discovered evidence of human habitation. There was pottery there, not
like the pottery found above the mud deposit, which gave evidence of
having been turned on a potter’s wheel, but handmade pottery.
Woolley, without doubt then reached the
proper conclusion, a conclusion that was confirmed by Prof. Langdon,
that the mud deposit had been laid by the biblical Flood. This was a
find that warranted publicity, and the day that Woolley reached this
conclusion he flashed the information back to his home base, “We have
found the Flood.” Here again, and in this remarkable manner, the truth
of the Bible had been attested, as the archeologists dug deeper and
deeper into one of the cities of ancient Mesopotamia.
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Chapter III
WHILE DWELLING
in Mesopotamia the Lord said to Abram, whose name was later changed to
Abraham, “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from
thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee.” (Gen. 12:1)
This Promised Land was Canaan, which later became known as Palestine,
and today is called Israel, although the Israel of today does not
embrace all the Promised Land. While Abraham went to Canaan in
obedience to the call of God, and dwelt there, he did not actually take
possession of it.—Acts 7:1-5
However, the Lord foretold that the
descendants of Abraham, after sojourning for generations in a strange
land, where they would serve as slaves, would be delivered from their
bandage and brought into the Promised Land. (Gen. 15:13,14) The land in
which the Hebrew people dwelt in fulfillment of this prophecy was
Egypt. It was under the leadership of Moses that they were delivered
from Egypt and, after forty years of wandering in the wilderness,
entered the Promised Land under the leadership of Joshua.
Moses led the Hebrews during their forty
years in the wilderness, but did not lead them over Jordan into the
Promised Land. However, shortly before his death Moses reassured the
Hebrews that the Lord would fulfill his promise to them. He said, “The
Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water,
of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; a land of
wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land
of oil olive, and honey; a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without
scarceness, that shall not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are
iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.”—Deut. 8:7-9
Surely the Promised Land was a “good land.”
And our point of chief interest at the moment is that among all the
other good things the Hebrews would find in this land would be
copper-mistranslated “brass” in the King James Version: “Out of
whose hills thou mayest dig copper”—this statement continued to be a
mystery to scientists and many students of the Bible. The general
belief was that no copper existed anywhere in this land which God gave
to the children of Israel.
Now, however, we know differently. In 1937,
Nelson Glueck, a member of the American School of Oriental Research,
headed a group of geologists, historians, architects, excavators, and a
photographer, who traveled to the mound known as Tell el-Kheleifeh,
which is located at the intersection of three countries—Africa, Arabia,
and Palestine-Syria. The first stage of the excavation produced
encouraging results. They found fishhooks made of copper. There were
remnants of walls. Also found nearby was a green material which was
identified as copper slag.
This particular expedition did not have time
to continue the excavation of Tell el-Kheleifeh. However, the work was
resumed, and completed in three stages, which ended in 1940. The total
discoveries proved that here, in the time of King Solomon of Israel,
was a flourishing copper mine, and that King Solomon, in Glueck’s
opinion, was probably among the greatest exporters of copper in ancient
times.
It was discovered that Tell el-Kheleifeh was
actually Ezion-geber, mentioned in I Kings 9:26, where we are informed
that “King Solomon made a navy of ships in Ezion-geber, which is beside
Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea.” It was discovered that this
ancient seaport town was highly industrialized and that the mining of
copper was one of the chief industries. Here, they discovered, had been
an up-to-date blast furnace which was built in accordance with a
principle that was brought into modern industry about a century ago and
was known as the Bessemer system.
It was from Ezion-geber that Solomon sent his
ships to all parts of the then known world. It was a center of world
trade, from which many of the exports of the Promised Land went out.
Returning, Solomon’s ships brought gold, ivory, and other imports. The
Israelites were not a seafaring people. They knew nothing about
shipbuilding. But Solomon, in his wisdom, imported the necessary skills
from other countries. The services of Hiram, a Phoenician, were
enlisted. The Bible says, “And Hiram sent in the navy his servants,
shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon.
And they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold, four hundred and
twenty talents, and brought it to King Solomon.”—I Kings 9:27,28
A further statement concerning Solomon’s
riches and his accomplishments reads, “The king had at sea a navy of
Tharshish with the navy of Hiram: once in three years came the navy of
Tharshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks. So
King Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches and for
wisdom.” (I Kings 10:22,23) It is now proven true by the archeologists
that none of these accounts of the Old Testament concerning the riches
and wisdom of Solomon are exaggerated. Copper did abound in the Land of
Promise. So once again our feet are established on solid historical
facts, and not on fairy tales, as the critics of the Bible have so
insistently claimed.
Prof. Yigael Yadin, Dean of Archeology in the
University of Jerusalem, has more recently further confirmed the
Bible’s records in other areas of Solomon’s accomplishments. In the
spring of 1968 the producers of The Bible Answers television series
interviewed Prof. Yadin on behalf of the Dawn Bible Students
Association, and were given some very vital and interesting
information. In I Kings 9:15 we read, “And this is the reason of the
levy which King Solomon raised: for to build the house of the Lord, and
his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and
Megiddo, and Gezer.”
Prof. Yadin was asked if he personally
believed that the findings of the archeologists in Palestine are
confirming the historical records of the Bible. He affirmed that this
was so, and gave as an example the reference in the Bible, quoted
before, which tells us that Solomon rebuilt the three cities, Hazor,
Gezer, and Megiddo. We quote:
“I would say, generally speaking, that this
is very definitely so. I would say that the historical portions of the
Bible are thus far being proved true by archeologists. I would go one
step further, and say that a biblical diary has actually helped us
archeologists find our way and understand the data. The Bible tells us,
for example, that King Solomon built three strategic cities. One is
Megiddo, and one is Gezer, near Jerusalem. When we excavated Hazor, the
third one, and we came to city number ten from the top, we reckoned
that this could be the Solomonic city if the Bible story is correct.
“We found here a very strange city gate with
six chambers and a casement wall; that is to say, a double wall. And
exactly the same type of gate was found in Megiddo by an American
archeologist. And then I discovered the third city, Gezer, and there
again was an identical gate. Were it not for the passage in the Bible
which tells us that Solomon built these three cities we would not have
been able to identify them. The actual discovery of these gates proved
that this example of a verse in the Bible was correct. Now this is only
one example. Wherever we go in this land of the Bible we illuminate our
finds with the Bible, and the finds, I would say, are illuminating the
Bible.”
Prof. Yadin was then asked to explain further
concerning his findings in Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer, the cities which
the Bible says were built, or rebuilt by Solomon. We quote again:
“Hazor is a very interesting biblical site.
This is a city which the Bible mentions several times. It is first
mentioned in the 11th chapter of the Book of Joshua. The king of Hazor
was the head of the Canaanite league which fought against Joshua. The
Bible says that Joshua killed the king of Hazor, and burned the city
with fire. Then we hear again about Hazor in the account which tells us
that Solomon rebuilt the city, together with Megiddo and Gezer. So we
have here a story. Joshua destroyed Hazor; Solomon rebuilt it.
“However, the history of the first city of
Hazor goes much, much further back than Joshua. When we reached the
virgin soil we found that we had dug through the ruins of twenty-two
cities, one on top of the other. The first city was built about the
28th century B.C. And let’s say that the city which Joshua destroyed
was city number thirteen from the top; and the city which Solomon
rebuilt was number ten from the top. Later Hazor was destroyed by
Tegpalatzer, and this was the fifth from the top. It is a huge site,
covering 170 acres. We worked there for four years, and managed as it
were to merely scratch the surface, compared with what we would like to
have accomplished.
“Now Megiddo, as we have found, was also
rebuilt by Solomon. This site was excavated by the American
Archeologist Institute of Chicago. They found also about twenty-two
cities one on top of another. But when we found the true city of
Solomon at Hazor, and we knew what his cities were like, I had a
suspicion that the city which was identified by the previous excavators
as Solomon’s was not the real one. They found beautiful and huge
stables, which they called Solomon’s Stables. I had a suspicion somehow
or other that they were wrong. On the basis of the Bible’s information
that Solomon rebuilt Hazor as well as Megiddo, I considered that these
two Solomonic cities would have to be the same, because they were built
by the same architects.
“I went back to Megiddo in 1960, and twice
again last year, and we found the true city of Solomon, which is
identical with and looks exactly like the one at Hazor. So, while I do
not like to destroy a beautiful tourist attraction at Megiddo, I am
happy, with the aid of the Bible, to identify the true city of Solomon
at Megiddo, which was under the so-called Solomon’s Stables. The stable
city, which is also important, was built by another famous—or
infamous—biblical character, King Ahab, the terrorist husband of
Jezebel.”
Prof. Yadin has assured us that the findings
of the archeologists thus far confirm the historical aspects of the
Bible, and most archeologists will agree with this. A large portion of
the history set forth in the Old Testament pertains to the land of
Canaan, the Promised Land of the Israelites. As we have seen, it was
under the leadership of Joshua that the Israelites as a people first
entered this land to possess it. Their point of entry was at Jericho.
The story of the fall of Jericho has long
been considered a mere fairy tale. Joshua was instructed by the Lord to
have the Israelites, led by the priests, march around Jericho once a
day for six days. On the seventh day they “compassed the city after the
same manner seven times: only on that day they compassed the city seven
times. And it came to pass at the seventh time, when the priests blew
with the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, Shout; for the Lord
hath given you the city.” “So the people shouted when the priests blew
with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound
of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the
wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every
man straight before him, and they took the city.” “And they burnt the
city with fire, and all that was therein.”—Joshua 6:15,16,20,24
Prof. John Garstang was leader of an
expedition which discovered the ancient city of Jericho. From their
discoveries they have concluded that Jericho is probably the oldest
city in the world. They give its probable age as 7,000 years. The
ancient walls of Jericho are of course of special interest to students
of the Bible, and the question naturally arises as to whether or not it
was a strongly walled city, and also whether the archeologists have
found any evidence that these walls had suddenly and precipitately been
destroyed to the extent that the Israelites could breach them and enter
the city.
The answer to both these questions is yes. As
for the walls of Jericho, there was an inner and an outer ring, with
space between. From their investigations the archeologists discovered
that the stones of the inner ring had fallen inward, and had buried the
buildings which were nearby. They found also that the stones of the
outer wall had fallen outward. Garstang reached the conclusion that
this had been caused by an earthquake. There were also ashes apparent,
indicating that the city had been burned, as the Bible states.
Many important cities mentioned in the Book
of Joshua, which records Joshua’s exploits in the conquest of Canaan,
have been unearthed by the archeologists; among them, Debir: “And
Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to Debir, and fought against
it.”—Joshua 10:38
We read in Joshua: “The Lord delivered
Lachish into the hand of Israel.” (Joshua 10:32) Archeologists have
found and definitely identified the ruins of Lachish. Joshua was buried
“in Timnath-serah which is in mount Ephraim, on the north side of the
hill of Gaash.” (Joshua 24:30) This city has also been located and
identified.
Then there was the period of the judges. Two
of these judges were Deborah and Gideon. The battles fought by these
have been confirmed. Also brought to light is the fact that the army of
the Midianites used camels as their beasts of burden and for travel. Up
to that time camels were considered wild animals, and it must have been
frightening for the Israelites to see them being controlled by the
Midianites. It is now claimed that the ten “camels” Abraham’s servant
used when he went into Mesopotamia to seek a bride for Isaac were in
reality donkeys.
Following the period of the judges there came
the period of the kings, Saul being the first of the kings. Saul’s
victories and defeats have been confirmed, and much in the life of King
David has been brought to light by the archeologists. The fall of the
ten-tribe kingdom of Israel and the two-tribe kingdom of Judah have
been confirmed, as well as the exile of these people in Assyria and
Babylon. And the end is not yet. Prof. Yadin was asked if he considered
that the archeological findings in Israel are nearly exhausted. To this
he replied:
“I would say far from it. Just to
give you an example, in the site where I dug in southern Galilee, we
dug for four years with 200 people each season. And when I finished the
excavation I reckoned that we have another 300 years to go on this one
site only. Here we have an accumulation of culture of thousands of
years with three dimensions. On each site we have from twenty to
twenty-two cities one on top of another, so I would say that
archeologists could go on working here for at least a few thousand
years more.”
There is much said in the Old Testament
concerning the corrupt heathen religious worship and practices which
prevailed in Canaan when the Israelites entered the land, and continued
to prevail. Time and again the Israelites fell victim to these false
gods. These false religions are described by God as “the abominations
of the heathen.” King Manasseh reigned fifty-five years, and during
that time Israel was brought almost entirely under the influence of
these heathen religions.—II Kings 21:1,2
And it was not merely that these religions
presented different views of deity. They were vile, sensual views,
which were translated into “holy” harlotry. The debauchery of the
people in their practice of the rites associated with these false
religions is almost beyond description, and certainly hard to believe.
While these false and sensual rites are mentioned in the Bible, the
revolting details are not furnished so clearly as they are in
discoveries made by archeologists. The fact that the record of false
gods and the sensual rites which accompanied their worship is verified
by the findings of archeologists gives further proofs of the
authenticity of the Holy Scriptures.
“For they also built them high places, and pillars, and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree.” (I Kings 14:23, RSV)
Through the work of the archeologists we have learned much of what
occurred in these “high places” of worship. These discoveries indicate
that the rites of these gods and demigods were stupefying, gross, and
sensual. What a temptation this was for the Israelites, and we can now
understand better why Baal and other gods gained such a firm foothold
among them on so many occasions. Thus, even in this area, the Bible
becomes more understandable and more revealing.
About the middle of the nineteenth century
the ancient city of Nineveh was found by the British archeologist Henry
Layard. Nineveh (the Calah of Genesis), was founded by Nimrod.
Discovering the ruins of this ancient city was in itself significant,
but more important was the fact that in the palace of Ashurbanipal
which was discovered within the city was the famous library belonging
to that monarch. This library was the most famous in the whole of the
ancient Orient. From this library 22,000 cuneiform tablets were
recovered, and later found their way into the British Museum.
It was about the same time that Sargon’s
castle was discovered, and in its ruins also were found many valuable
records pertaining to Assyria’s conquest of the ten-tribe kingdom of
Israel. The tablets in the ancient library at Nineveh, together with
those found in Sargon’s castle, excavated by M. Botta, have greatly
assisted archeologists, and indeed marked the birth of a new
science—Assyriology. Nineveh was the ancient capital of Assyria.
These tablets have aided the archeologists to
realize more fully than would otherwise have been possible that the
narratives of the Bible, as they relate to Mesopotamia, and later to
Canaan, the Land of Promise, are indeed true historical records. II
Kings 17:24 reads, “And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon,
and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim,
and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of
Israel, and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof.”
These became what are often referred to as “the new Samaritans.”
The Bible’s record of this uprooting of the
ten tribes from Samaria, and the substitution of alien people in the
land, is abundantly confirmed by tablets found in the ruins of Sargon’s
castle, and in the great library of Nineveh. The Israelites of the
ten-tribe kingdom became the “lost tribes” of Israel, being assimilated
through generations by the people in the land of their captivity.
So it is that when we read in the Bible of
Nimrod’s building a city, or of Jonah’s going to Nineveh, or of
Assyria’s conquest of the ten-tribe kingdom of Israel, we are not
reading fairy tales, but accurate historical records—records of which
the chosen people of God themselves became a part. How this should
strengthen our faith in the Bible, and make us more determined to serve
faithfully the God of the Bible—the great Jehovah of Israel, our
Heavenly Father!
Back to Top
Chapter IV
PALESTINE, THE
land which God promised to Abraham and his posterity, is also the
country in which Jesus, the world’s Redeemer and Savior, was born. It
was here that he conducted his world-changing ministry. It was here
that he died to redeem the world of mankind from sin and death, and it
was here that he rose from the dead. In Palestine today there are many
legendary places which are shown to tourists, who are told that here
Jesus did this, and here Jesus did that. On this hill he was crucified.
they are told, and in this tomb he was buried.
It is natural that this should be true with
respect to such an outstanding personage as Jesus. However, few of
these legendary places have been authenticated as the actual sites of
the occurrences associated with them. On the other hand, there is much
in Palestine which does confirm the fact that this is the land in which
Jesus was born, and where he served and died, and was raised from the
dead: for there is much in this ancient Holy Land which has not changed
since the Master walked in it in the pursuit of his ministry.
Jesus was a man of peace. He did not command
a large and conquering army; he did not destroy and burn walled cities,
leaving ruins to be discovered by archeologists later. But tracing the
ministry of the Son of God, the New Testament identifies many
geographical facts which are true of Palestine today. There is the
River Jordan. It is the same Jordan in which Jesus was baptized by John
the Baptist. There is also the Sea of Galilee referred to so many times
in connection with Jesus’ ministry. This is the same body of water on
which Jesus walked and sailed, and it was at the Sea of Galilee that
his fishermen disciples were found, and invited to become fishers of
men. It was on the shore of Galilee that Jesus fed the five thousand
with a small amount of bread and fish.
Capernaum was one of the principal cities on
the shore of Galilee in the days of Jesus. Much of his early ministry
was conducted here, and here a number of his miracles were performed.
He preached in the synagogue in Capernaum. On one of Jesus’ visits to
Capernaum he said to the people of the city, “And thou, Capernaum,
which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if
the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom,
it would have remained until this day.”—Matt. 11:23
This was in reality a pronouncement of
destruction that would come upon the city of Capernaum. “Hell” is the
death condition, not a place of torment, and Capernaum was destroyed as
a city, and remains in ruins to this day. A similar pronouncement was
made upon Chorazin and Bethsaida. These cities, on or near the shore of
Galilee, had been highly favored, even by nature, and principally
because the Son of God bore witness to the truth in them, by word of
mouth and by his mighty miracles. But where are these cities today? Two
of them are marked by desolate heaps of ruins, while the exact location
of the third is an uncertainty.
A synagogue has been constructed amidst the
ruins of Capernaum, but it is not the ancient synagogue in which Jesus
preached. The old synagogue lies buried beneath the ruins of this
ancient and honorable city upon which Jesus pronounced doom. The ruins
of Capernaum are an attraction for tourists today, but probably few of
these tourists, when viewing these ruins, realize that they stand out
as incontrovertible testimony to the accuracy of history pertaining to
Jesus and the infallible nature of his prophecy. By contrast Tiberius,
which also existed in Jesus’ day, still stands on the shore of Galilee
because Jesus uttered no pronouncement of destruction against it.
The pool of Siloam is mentioned in connection
with one of Jesus’ miracles—the giving of sight to a man who had been
born blind. We read concerning this that Jesus “spat on the ground, and
made clay of the spittle, and he annointed the eyes of the blind man
with the clay, and said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam,
(which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and
washed, and came seeing.”—John 9:6,7
Zev Vilnay, Ph.D., author of Israel Guide,
informs us that at least a part of this pool can still be seen. King
Hezekiah had a tunnel built from a spring outside the walls of
Jerusalem to the pool of Siloam, which was within the walls. This was
to supply water to the people of the city in case of siege. Dr. Vilnay
writes, “The tunnel is still extant, its length being 553 m. (as the
crow flies 335 m.) The waters of the Gihon flow through it from a
height of 650 m. to the pool of Siloam, twenty m. lower down. From the
Spring of Gihon the pool of Siloam can be reached through the dry bed
of the Kidron.”
Here is another landmark of Jesus’ day. It is
not a legend, but the authentic pool of water where the blind man
washed, and through this co-operation with the Master, received his
sight.
The entire earthly life and ministry of Jesus
is of vital concern to all Christians. While Jesus was for a time
popular with the common people, largely because he was able to heal
them of their diseases, and on some occasions restored their dead to
life, the religious rulers were opposed to him, and his ministry was
brought to what appeared to be an ignominious end. His appearance in
Israel and his conflict with the religious leaders were not considered
important to historians, so little attention is given to him in secular
history, although he is not completely ignored. The Roman historians
Tacitus and Suetonius both refer to Christ; also Josephus, as we shall
see.
The closing days of Jesus’ ministry are of
special importance to us because through his death an opportunity of
life was provided for all mankind. Concerning the Bible’s record of
these tragic closing days, Werner Keller, in his book, The Bible as History, has this to say:
“The descriptions of the trial,
sentence, and crucifixion in the four gospels have been checked with
scientific thoroughness by many scholars and have been found to be
historically reliable accounts even to the last detail. The chief
witnesses for the prosecution against Jesus have been indirectly
attested, and the place where sentence was pronounced has been
accurately ascertained by excavations. The various incidents in the
course of the trial can be verified from contemporary sources and
modern research.”—p. 371
John 19:13 reads, “When Pilate therefore
heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment
seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew,
Gabbatha.” It was from this Pavement that Pilate delivered Jesus to be
crucified. (John 19:16) Father L. H. Vincent, an archeologist, through
years of hard work, has found this Pavement. It escaped destruction
when Jerusalem was devastated in A.D. 70.
We now have very revealing archeological data
concerning Pontius Pilate, who questioned and condemned Jesus on the
Pavement in his judgment hall. The Roman rulers of the time made their
home in Caesarea. We quote an observation concerning Caesarea from Israel Guide, by Zev Vilnay, Ph.D.:
“The Roman amphitheatre is on the
seashore, south of the Crusader wall. It was built in the second
century and its remains were unearthed in 1961. Various debris and a
fragment of a Roman inscription were brought to light. It mentions
Emperor Tiberius and Pontius Pilate. This is the first archeological
evidence of the famed procurator of Judea under whose rule Jesus’
crucifixion took place. He persecuted the Jews and specially kindled
their hatred by desecrating the temple and looting its treasures.”—p.
327
The Jewish historian Josephus speaks of Jesus and of the fact that it was Pilate who condemned him to death. We quote:
“Now there was about this time
Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer
of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with
pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the
Gentiles. He was Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the
principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those that
loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them
alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these
and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him.”—Antiquities of the Jews, p. 535
Josepheus not only thus historically verifies
that Jesus lived and served, was crucified and raised from the dead at
the time the Bible indicates, but he also records the terrible
experiences which came upon the people of Jerusalem and, in fact, on
the whole nation of Israel, as foretold by Jesus. Jesus said, “O
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them
which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children
together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye
would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto
you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he
that cometh in the name of the Lord.”—Matt. 23:37-39
Jerusalem was the capital of ancient Israel,
and her “children” referred to by Jesus would be all the Israelites in
and out of the city itself. When Jesus said of Jerusalem, “Your house
is left unto you desolate,” his reference was to the entire Jewish
polity which till then enjoyed the distinct position of being
exclusively God’s chosen people, the progeny of Abraham through whom
all the families of the earth were to be blessed. However, the
destruction of the literal city of Jerusalem is also implied in this
statement.
Referring to the beautiful temple within the
city of Jerusalem Jesus said, “There shall not be left here one stone
upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” (Matt. 24:2) This
prophecy had such a complete fulfillment that only a small section of
one of the temple’s walls escaped destruction. This small section of
the temple wall is now known as the Wailing Wall.
The historian Josephus records in
considerable detail the horrible experiences which came upon the Jewish
people in connection with the siege and destruction of Jerusalem. He
points out that the Roman army surrounded Jerusalem at the time of the
passover when thousands of Jews from all over Palestine, and from other
countries, were in the city. Countless thousands lost their lives by
starvation, by disease and plague. Mothers killed their own children to
procure food.
Finally, however, the Jews were subdued and
the Romans took charge. This was in A.D. 70. However, many of the Jews
surrendered to the Romans; and secured a measure of amnesty, while
others, still defiant, escaped. Many of these were known as the
Sicarii. These banded together against those who had surrendered to the
Romans, and inflicted much punishment upon them. Under the leadership
of one Eleazar, 960 of the Sicarii took refuge in a strong Roman fort
called Masada, and there they held out against the Roman army for a
long time. But when it became apparent that they would either have to
surrender or be killed, they chose, upon the advice of their leader, to
commit suicide. Only two women and three children did not join in this
suicide pact, and these lived to tell the story of what had occurred
within the fort, which turned out to be the Tomb of Masada.
The historical account of Josephus concerning
Masada has now been verified by Prof. Yigael Yadin, Dean of Archeology
in the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Prof. Yadin told his story of
Masada to our representatives who interviewed him in his home near
Jerusalem. He was asked, “Can you describe your work at Masada, and
what you consider the most important aspect of your work there?” He
replied:
“Well, Masada is an example of archeology
which is different from excavating the tells or sites of the Old
Testament. Here we had, archeologically speaking, a sitting duck, if I
may use that expression. We had the writings of the famous Jewish
historian, Flavius Josephus, in which he says that he was a commander
in the first revolt of the Jews against the Romans in A.D. 66. That was
against Titus. He describes in his writings in great detail how in the
end Jerusalem was captured and the temple was burned.
“Only in one spot, in Masada, were found Jews
who were resisting. Here 960 men, women, and children were holding back
the whole might of the Roman Empire. He tells us how in the end they
were surrounded by the Romans and how a siege wall was built around the
fort. When everything was hopeless the people decided to take their own
lives by their own hands rather than to submit to the yoke of the
Romans. Then he describes how every man embraced his wife and children
and then killed them, and then killed himself—both dramatic and tragic
at the same time.
“Therefore Masada, even before our
excavation, was a sort of symbol to the people of Israel and the world.
It was a symbol of the way our people prefer death to servitude. It was
also a challenge and a reminder to people of what can happen. So we
went to the site. We knew from the writing what happened there. But we
did not know what we would find.
“This excavation, which took place in 1966,
we did with the help of thousands of volunteers from twenty-seven
countries in the world. We did not want to go to this excavation with
disinterested workers. We thought it would be sort of blasphemous. So
we asked for volunteers. And, amazingly, thousands came, as I said,
from all over the world, and they worked under very difficult
conditions, and lived in tents. And we managed in eleven months of hard
work to uncover the whole of the site, which normally would have taken
about 26 years of excavation.
“The question was, Are the descriptions of
Josephus correct, and what will we find? We knew, for example, that the
first to fortify the site prior to this was Herod the Great; and when
we found his palace, with beautiful mosaics and all, we were all very
thrilled. But this was not the greatest moment of the excavation.
Sometimes in archeology it is not the nice thing which has a story
behind it. Sometimes a very small thing has a very great story. This
was particularly true when we came to a floor covered with a thick
layer of ashes, which was the evidence of the last tragic moments of
A.D. 73, because Josephus said that before they killed themselves they
burned the palace. These were exciting moments when we found the
evidence of this.
“When we found the sandals of women and
children, pieces of cloth and of cosmetic objects, and we knew that
these belonged to the people in their last tragic moments, these were
the greatest moments of the dig. The greatest of these alone was
perhaps when we found on the floor scrolls of the Bible, and we could
see the tragedy of these people before they committed suicide. They had
the Holy Scriptures with them. They did not want to burn them—they
could not burn the Bible—so they left them where they were.
“We found that the Romans did tear the
scrolls to pieces. But even the pieces, we discovered, were important
scientifically, because by these we could establish the date. We know
that this tragedy took place in A.D. 73. So we knew that whatever we
found there was prior to this date—sometimes fifty or a hundred years
before. So this is an example of how a book written two thousand years
ago [Josephus’ history] was a guide—room to room, more or less—and it
proved to be very accurate.
“We found the remains of the Books of
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and Psalms. One of the very
interesting discoveries was the synagogue of these zealots. This, in
fact, is the oldest synagogue known up to now, and it was under the
floor of this synagogue that we found these scrolls. This was a Jewish
custom. When a scroll went out of use, or was blemished, they used to
bury it under the floor of the synagogue.
“Now these scrolls were under the earth, so
we found them to be in very bad shape. One of them, for example, turned
out to be the book of the Prophet Ezekiel. Essentially the entire
scroll was decomposed. The only part which remained intact was the
famous chapter of the resurrection of dry bones. We found remains of
most of the books of the Old Testament that would obviously be there.
These were pious Jews. They brought their books with them, and they
left them there.”
We surely thank Prof. Yadin for this
revealing account of his findings at Masada. The story of Masada is, of
course, not in the Bible, but it is closely related to the Bible in
that it gives us a further insight into the experiences of the
descendants of Abraham, who are the people of the Bible. Besides, it
helps us to realize the accuracy of the prophecies of Jesus, as well as
of the Old Testament, concerning the tragic experiences which would
come upon this people, and of how they would be scattered throughout
the world.
Prof. Yadin mentioned finding a part of the
prophecy of Ezekiel referring to the resurrection of dry bones. This is
found in Ezekiel 37:1-14. A “valley of dry bones” is mentioned and said
to represent the whole house of Israel. These bones are seen to come
together; flesh appears on them, and finally they are given breath and
they live. While the resurrection of both Jews and Gentiles from the
dead is promised throughout the Bible, this prophecy pertains to the
resurrection of the Israelites as a people from the various national
graves in which, through the centuries, they have been scattered. Many
Old Testament prophecies assure us that at this end of the present age
the Jews would be restored to their own land.
In the New Testament we find Jesus saying,
“Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the
Gentiles be fulfilled.” (Luke 21:24) Here Jesus’ reference to Jerusalem
includes the entire Jewish polity. We will not discuss the point here,
but actually “the times of the Gentiles” is a period in prophecy of
2,520 years beginning with 606 B.C., when Zedekiah, the last Jewish
king, was overthrown, and ending in 1914. It was the World War that
began then that led to the opportunity for the Jewish people to return
to their Promised Land. How accurately, therefore, was Jesus’ prophecy
fulfilled!
The Prophet Joel wrote, “For behold, in those
days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah
and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations.” (Joel 3:1,2) We have
been witnesses to the fact that while the Israelites have been
gathering in their own land, all nations have been gathering, for war
on the one hand, and in the hope of maintaining peace on the other.
Daniel refers to these general events as “a time of trouble, such as
never was since there was a nation.” (Dan. 12:1) Jesus referred to this
“time of trouble” as a time of “tribulation” upon the world, and said
that if it were not shortened no flesh would be saved.—Matt. 24:21,22
We all know that the trouble in the world
today could erupt into a general conflagration which, by the misuse of
hydrogen power, could destroy the entire human race. Thus Jesus’
accuracy as a prophet is again attested. He assures us, however, that
the destruction of “all flesh” will not be permitted. After all, we are
at the threshold of the messianic kingdom promised from cover to cover
in the Bible, and through this kingdom all mankind is to be given the
opportunity of enjoying health and life forever.
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Chapter V
THERE ARE
many who, while they feel that the historical records of the Old
Testament are largely myths, nevertheless express themselves as having
considerable confidence in the narratives of the New Testament. For
example, these people like to think of Jesus as having spoken the truth
on the various subjects which he discussed. We are glad of this, for we
believe we can present evidence that Jesus and the apostles of the New
Testament themselves had faith in and confirmed all the most disputed
records of the Old Testament.
In Luke 3:23-38 the genealogy of Jesus is
traced through a long line of ancients, including a number of the well
known personalities of the Old Testament, along with Seth, who was “the
son of Adam, which was the son of God.” Thus clearly does Luke
establish that Adam not only was the first man, but that he was the
direct creation of God—“the son of God.”
In Romans 5:14 the Apostle Paul writes,
“Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned
after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him
that was to come.” Here Paul confirms his belief in Adam and of the
manner in which death came into the world through Adam. Adam willfully
disobeyed divine law and was condemned, but this condemnation and death
itself, were inherited by his progeny even though they may not have
sinned with the same degree of willfulness as did Adam—they were born
in a dying condition.
This continued unabated until Moses, and then
God gave the one little nation of Israel an opportunity to gain life
through obedience to his law.. Referring to the Law, the Scriptures
state that “the man which doeth these things shall live by them.” (Lev.
18:5; Rom. 10:5) Paul explained that while the Law was designed to give
life, it failed to do so because of the imperfection of the
people.—Rom. 7:10
The Apostle Paul again refers to Adam in I
Corinthians 15:22, which reads, “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ
shall all be made alive.” This also confirms the Genesis record that
death came into the world through the transgression of Adam; and here
the additional thought is given that the opportunity to enjoy
everlasting life through Christ is in due time to be just as
far-reaching as has been the penalty of death which was imposed as a
result of Adam’s sin.
We quote again from Paul: “The first man Adam
was made a living soul.” (I Cor. 15:45) This is directly from Genesis
2:7, where we are told that Gad formed man of the dust of the ground,
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and “man became a living
soul.” Then Paul speaks of the “last Adam”: “the last Adam was made a
quickening [or lifegiving] spirit.” Here we have set forth God’s great
plan of redemption and restoration through Christ.
“For Adam was first formed, then Eve.” (I
Tim. 2:13; Gen. 1:27) Here again we note the full confidence Paul had
in the details of the Genesis account of. creation.
Paul also informs us that “Adam was not
deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.” (I
Tim. 2:14) The great deception which the Adversary perpetrated upon
mother Eve was that she would not die if she partook of the forbidden
fruit. (Gen. 3:1-4) Satan’s lie that death would not result from
disobeying God’s law has deceived essentially the whole world ever
since it was first told to Eve. It is the basis of all the “no-death”
theories that have existed throughout the ages. Its modern version is,
“There is no death.”
In Jude, verse 14, we are informed that Enoch
was the seventh from Adam. Surely Jude had confidence in the
genealogical record of Genesis.
Thus we find that Adam’s name appears eight
times in the New Testament. These references confirm the fact that he
was the first man; that he came under sentence of death because he
transgressed God’s law, and that all his progeny share in this
condemnation.
Jesus also confirms the Genesis record of creation, but without mentioning Adam by name. In Matthew 19:4,5, Revised Standard Version,
Jesus refers to the creation of man, saying, “Have ye not read, that he
which made them from the beginning, made them male and female, and
said, For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave
to his wife and they twain shall become one flesh.” See Genesis 2:24
In his references to Genesis, Jesus mentions
Abel, one of the sons of Adam. In a reminder of the trouble which would
come upon the Israelites of his generation, Jesus said, “That the blood
of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world,
may be required of this generation; from the blood of Abel unto the
blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple:
verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.”—Luke
11:50,51
Abel and the sacrifice which he offered to
the Lord are mentioned in Hebrews 11:4, which reads, “By faith Abel
offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he
obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts:
and by it he being dead yet speaketh.” The story of Cain and Abel a
myth? The writer of the Book of Hebrews did not think so!
Jesus believed in the Genesis account of the
Flood. When describing conditions in the earth at the time of his
return and second presence, he said, “As it was in the days of Noah, so
shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they
drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day
that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them
all.” (Luke 17:26,27) If Jesus was mistaken concerning the Flood, then
we could have no confidence id any of his teachings. But Jesus was not
mistaken, as archeologists have since confirmed.
The Genesis record of Abraham, and the
promises God made to him, are likewise discounted by the modern school
of thought. But Jesus believed in Abraham, and referred to him several
times: On one occasion he observed, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to
see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.” (John 8:56) Abraham’s vision
of Christ’s day was the result of the promise God made to him—the
promise that through his “Seed” all the families of the earth would be
blessed. (Gen. 12:3) Evidently Abraham understood that this Seed of
promise would be the great Messiah, so he looked forward to the coming
of the Messiah, which was Christ.
Paul confirms this viewpoint, also mentioning
Abraham. We quote, “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made.
He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed,
which is Christ.” (Gal. 3:16) And then, Hebrews 11:8-10 reads, “By
faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he
should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not
knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise,
as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob,
the heirs with him of the same promise: for he looked for a city which
hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”
Paul wrote that God preached beforehand the
Gospel unto Abraham—the good news being contained in the promise that
through the Messiah all the families of the earth would be blessed.
(Gal. 3:8) This same Gospel was proclaimed by the angel who announced
the birth of Jesus: “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of
great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day
in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.”—Luke 2:10
If Abraham was merely a legendary character,
then no promises were ever made to him. This would mean that the first
promise of the Gospel is a fraud. And in that case Jesus was deceived
if he supposed that Abraham actually did exist and looked forward to
the coming of his kingdom, and we would have no foundation at all in
the Bible for “the Gospel of Christ, … is the power of God unto
salvation.”—Rom. 1:16
But Abraham did exist. Archeology proves it,
and Jesus and the apostles confirm it by their many references to this
friend of God, who is the father of the faithful. Abraham’s name
appears in the New Testament more than fifty times. One of the very
important references is in Hebrews 2:16, where we are informed that
Jesus “took on,” or became, “the seed of Abraham.”
Another incident recorded in Genesis with
which Abraham was associated was the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
The Apostle Peter refers to this. He said that God “turning the cities
of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow,
making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly.”—II
Pet. 2:6
Genesis records the experience of Abraham
offering his son Isaac in sacrifice. Hebrews 11:17-19 confirms this. We
quote, “ By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he
that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of
whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: accounting
that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also
he received him in a figure.”
In the 7th chapter of Acts we find Stephen,
the first Christian martyr, confirming the story of Joseph and the
jealousy of his brethren which caused them to sell him into slavery.
But God was with him and “delivered him out of all his afflictions, and
gave him wisdom and favor before Pharaoh, king of Egypt.” We can say
that every prominent person and incident in Genesis is confirmed in the
New Testament.
One of the Old Testament accounts which has
been classified by the critics as a fantasy of the first order is the
one which pertains to Jonah and the fact that he was swallowed by a
“great fish.” But Jesus believed this report to be true. We quote Jesus
concerning Jonah: “Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees
answered. saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. But he
answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh
after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of
the prophet Jonah: for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the
whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights
in the heart of the earth.”—Matt. 12:38-40
Jesus then added, “The men of Nineveh shall
rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because
they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, a greater than
Jonah is here.” (Matt. 28:41) From this it is clear that Jesus had the
complete story of Jonah in mind, and believed it. The “sign of Jonah”
is the fact that as Jonah was saved from the belly of the great fish,
so Jesus would be raised from the dead. But few of the Israelites of
Jesus’ day believed this “sign.” They denied that Jesus had been raised
from the dead, even as the critics now deny that Jonah was swallowed by
a great fish, and that after his deliverance he preached to the
Ninevites and led them to repentance.
Jesus, in confirming the fact that he would
give his life that the dying race might be restored to life, referred
to his flesh, his humanity, as “bread which cometh down from heaven,”
and used the manna which fell in the wilderness to sustain the
Israelites as an illustration.. We quote: “Verily, verily, I say unto
you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of
life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This
is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof,
and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any
man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will
give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” (John
6:47-51) Thus does the Master confirm another of the great miracles
recorded in the Old Testament.
Moses, like Abraham, is one of the
outstanding personalities of the Old Testament, and over and over again
Jesus either quotes from him or refers to him. He was the great
lawgiver of Israel, having written what the Bible refers to as “the
book of the law.” Critics tend to discount the writings of Moses,
claiming that in his day the art of writing was not known. But now, as
we saw in chapter one of this series, it is realized that writing was
known and practiced hundreds of years before the days of Moses. Jesus
knew this, and adds his testimony to the authenticity of Moses’
writings.
As a matter of fact, Jesus believed in the
infallibility of all the Old Testament prophets. Speaking to two of his
disciples after his resurrection,. and comforting them with the fact
that his death had been foretold, and therefore was not a miscarriage
of the divine plan, he quoted’ from the prophecies. He said to them, “O
fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:
ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his
glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto
them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.”—Luke 24:25-27
After Jesus left the two disciples, and they
realized that it had been the resurrected Jesus who had been speaking
to them, “they said one to another, Did not our hearts burn within us,
while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the
scriptures?” (Luke 24:32) We can well imagine the feelings of these two
disciples when they became convinced of Jesus’ resurrection, and that
his suffering and death were parts of the divine plan, and had been
foretold by the prophets! May our hearts burn within us more and more
as the evidence accumulates that the Word of God is truly a firm
foundation for our faith.
One of the favorite prophets for attack by
the critics is Daniel. Daniel did not even write the Book of Daniel, it
is charged. But here again Jesus disagrees. He said, “When ye therefore
shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the
prophet, stand in the holy place.” Here we have Jesus not only
referring to Daniel, but calling him a prophet.
Daniel 12:1 speaks of a “time of trouble such
as never was since there was a nation.” Although he does not mention
Daniel by name, Jesus refers to this prophecy, speaking of “the time of
trouble” as “tribulation.” We quote, “For then shall be great
tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this
time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened,
there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days
shall be shortened.”—Matt. 24:21,22
The Book of Hebrews also confirms incidents
recorded in the Book of Daniel. The account of the three Hebrews in the
fiery furnace is well known to Bible readers, as is also the experience
of Daniel in the lions’ den. Critics would like us to believe that
these are merely fanciful stories with no foundation in fact. But the
writer of Hebrews knew that they were real. In this book the apostle
presents a number of the experiences of the Ancient Worthies, referring
to them as those who through faith “subdued kingdoms, wrought
righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, [and]
quenched the violence of fire.” It was Daniel who “stopped the mouths
of lions,” and it was the three Hebrews in the fiery furnace who
“quenched. the violence of fire.”—Heb. 11:33,34
In the 11th chapter of Hebrews we also find
confirmation of many other incidents recorded in the Old Testament. It
gives brief statements as to how the heroes of faith demonstrated their
faith in God and in his ability to care for them. Paul mentions Abel,
Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Joseph, Moses. Of Moses the
apostle says that he forsook Egypt, “chosing rather to suffer
affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin
for a season.”
By faith, Paul tells us, the Israelites
“passed through the Red Sea as by dry land.” Also “by faith the walls
of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days.” Then
Paul speaks of Gideon, who defeated the hordes of the Midianites with
his little band of three hundred; and of Barak, Samson, Jephthae; of
David, also, and Samuel, and of the prophets.
In the Old Testament we have the records of
two mothers whose children were awakened from the sleep of death. One
was the Shunamite woman, and the other was the son of a widow. One
miracle was performed by Elisha, and the other by Elijah. (II Kings
4:32-36; I Kings 17:19-23) Paul refers to these two miracles with the
simple statement, “Women received their dead raised to life
again.”—Heb. 11:35
Paul knew that the miracles of the Old
Testament would be followed during the Messianic kingdom by even
greater miracles—even the resurrection of all the dead. Speaking of the
faithfulness of the Ancient Worthies, he indicates that their
inspiration to faithfulness was their hope of “a better resurrection.”
In Acts 24:15 Paul speaks of this “better resurrection” as the
resurrection of the “just,” and asserts that the faithful of the past
who had hope toward God, believed that there would be a resurrection,
“both of the just and the unjust.”
And what a great miracle that will be—the
resurrection of all mankind! This will not be accomplished in a day,
but will be the work of the entire thousand-year kingdom of the
Messiah. The “just,” the Ancient Worthies, will be the first to be
restored to life, and these will co-operate in the glorious work of
that kingdom, the work of blessing “all the families of the earth” in
keeping with the promise God made to Abraham.
There are many other quotations and
references in the New Testament concerning the people and events of the
Old Testament. However, we believe we have referred to a sufficient
number of these to establish the fact that Jesus and the apostles of
the New Testament did believe that the Old Testament was the inspired
Word of God. On its promises they built their message of the Gospel;
the Gospel of Christ which holds out such a glorious hope for all
mankind, and which is especially comforting in this day of increasing
chaos and distress.
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Chapter VI
IT IS
stimulating to faith to realize that all the main events and places of
the Bible are confirmed by the spade and pick of the archeologist. The
same thing is true with respect to the principal personalities of the
Bible. We know now that when we read the story of Abraham and his life
it is not fiction, but a true statement of the events that took place
back in the ancient time in which he lived. The same sense of reality
is bound to grip us as we study any of the records of the Bible.
And this firm establishment of faith in the
genuineness of the Bible’s records and its people should in turn lead
us to a closer study of the message God has in his Word for us—the plan
of redemption and salvation for all mankind which it reveals. There is
little purpose in knowing that the Bible is trite unless we take note
of what God is saying to us throughout its pages concerning his plans
and purposes for the deliverance and eternal blessing of his dying
creatures here on earth.
To discover God’s plan in the Bible, let us
note what the inspired record says is the purpose in the creation of
man. Concerning this we read, “So God created man in his own image, in
the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And
God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply,
and replenish [fill] the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over
the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every
living thing that moveth upon the earth.”—Gen. 1:27,28
Here is a plain statement indicating that
God’s design for his human creatures was that the earth should be their
home. They were created in God’s mental and moral image, and commanded
to multiply and to fill the earth with their progeny. Nothing was said
to our first parents about going to heaven. The earth was their home,
and they were to subdue it and rule over it.
Genesis 2:7 gives us further information
about man’s creation: “The Lord God formed man of the dust of the
ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and map
became a living soul.” Note that God did not give man a “soul,” but the
union of his perfect organism with the breath of life constituted a
soul—man “became a living soul.”
God did not create immortal human souls. The
expression “immortal soul” is not found anywhere in the Bible. Man was
a soul, but his continued existence depended upon obedience to the laws
of his Creator. One aspect of that law was stated to Adam. He was told
that if he partook of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he
would surely die. (Gen. 2:17) He was not told that he would die and go
to heaven, neither to a place of torment. The penalty was to be death,
which is the absence of life. Thousands of years later Paul wrote, “The
wages of sin is death.” (Rom. 6:23) And Solomon wrote, “The living know
that they shall die; but the dead know not anything.”—Eccl. 9:5
Satan, the fallen Lucifer, masquerading as a
serpent, approached mother Eve and asked her, “Hath God said, Ye shall
riot eat of every tree of the garden?” Eve’s reply was, “We may eat of
the fruit of the trees of the garden but of the fruit of the tree which
is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it,
neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.” And then Satan uttered the
blackest and most devastating lie that was ever told. He said to mother
Eve, “Ye shall not surely die”—death will not be the penalty for
sin.—Gen. 3:1-4
Jesus knew about this lie which Satan told to
mother Eve, and referred to the Devil as a liar. Addressing the scribes
and Pharisees of his day, Jesus said, “Ye are of your father the Devil,
and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the
beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in
him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar,
and the father of it.”—John 8:44
Thus does Jesus confirm the confrontation of
Satan and Eve, and declares that Satan’s statement, “Ye shall not
surely die,” was a lie. But this lie, nonetheless, led to the
transgression of our first parents, and to their death. However, almost
without exception Adam’s descendants have preferred to believe that
“there is no death.” Satan’s lie is responsible for the unscriptural
theory concerning the alleged “immortal soul.” It is also responsible
for the theory of reincarnation, and all the other “no death” teachings
of the heathen.
We have emphasized that “the wages of sin is
death” because unless we are prepared to believe that death is a
reality we will not be able to understand clearly God’s great plan of
redemption and deliverance from death as taught in the Bible. The
record of Genesis is that Adam did disobey God’s law, and that the
sentence of death fell upon him. The Lord said to him, “Dust thou art,
and unto dust shalt thou return.” (Gen. 3:19) In the New Testament we
are informed that “in Adam all die.”—I Cor. 15:21,22
When pronouncing sentence the Creator made a
very revealing statement to Satan. We quote: “I will put enmity between
thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise
thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” (Gen. 3:15) This is highly
figurative language, but in the light of the general testimony of the
Bible we find it to be the first reference by the Lord to a coming
Deliverer, or Messiah; One who would destroy Satan and his works, and
rescue mankind from the results of that great tragedy in Eden.
There is an indirect reference to this in
Revelation 20:1,2, which reads, “I saw an angel come down from heaven,
having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And
he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and
Satan, and bound him a thousand years.” The remainder of this chapter
reveals that following the binding of “that old serpent,” Christ and
his church—the Seed of the woman—reign for a thousand years, and that
as a result of this reign the dead are restored; Satan himself is
destroyed, and death itself is abolished.
After the Flood the statement concerning the
Seed of the woman was enlarged upon in a promise which God made to
Abraham. The promise was that through the Seed of Abraham all the
families of the earth would be blessed. (Gen. 12:3) Later in his
dealings with Abraham God confirmed this promise by his oath. This was
following Abraham’s demonstration of faith in his willingness to offer
his son Isaac in sacrifice. God said to him, “By myself have I sworn,
saith the Lord, far because thou hast done this thing, and hast not
withheld they son, thine only son: that in blessing I will bless thee,
and in multiplying I will multiply they seed as the stars of the
heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall
possess the gate of his enemies.”—Gen. 22:16,17
In the New Testament the Apostle Paul gives
us a very revealing explanation concerning this promised “Seed.” Paul
wrote, “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith
not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is
Christ.” (Gal. 3:16) Jesus, then, is the “Seed” God promised to
Abraham, the One through whom all the families of the earth are to be
blessed.
How beautifully this harmonizes with the
angelic announcement of the birth of Jesus: “Fear not: for, behold, I
bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For
unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is
Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:10,11) The promise to Abraham was that his
Seed would bless all families of the earth, and now we find the angel
declaring that the birth of Jesus was “good tidings of great joy, which
shall be to all people,” and the reason given that he had come to be a
Savior, a blesser.
The question naturally arises, if Jesus came
to bless all the families of the earth why has that blessing not
reached the people? Sin and death were reigning in the earth in Jesus’
day, and sin and death are still reigning. Has there been a failure of
God’s plan? No, there has been no failure of God’s plan. Rather,
another feature of the divine plan for blessing the people has been in
the process of development.
Paul furnishes information concerning this.
We have noted Paul’s identification of Jesus as the Seed of Abraham.
This is given in Galatians 3:16. In verses 27 and 29 of this same
chapter we read, “As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have
put on Christ.” “And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and
heirs according to the promise.” Thus Paul explains to faithful
Christians that they, like Jesus, are looked upon by God as being the
Seed of Abraham, that Seed which is to bless all the families of the
earth.
This explains why the work of blessing all
mankind with health and life did not begin when Jesus laid down his
life two thousand years ago, for there was to be the work of gathering
from the world those who were to be associated with Jesus in the
kingdom work of blessing. Jesus commissioned his followers to go
throughout the earth proclaiming the Gospel, and the purpose of this
has been, not the conversion of all mankind and making them church
members, but the calling of those who have been willing to follow in
the footsteps of Jesus, suffering and dying with him, that they might
live and reign with him. (Rev. 20:6) This work of gathering those who
would be the future joint-heirs with Jesus in his kingdom has already
required more than nineteen hundred years, and it is still going on.
Life is, pre-eminently, the great blessing
which is to be extended to “all families of the earth,” as promised to
Abraham. This calls for an awakening from the sleep of death of all who
have died. But in order for this to take place mankind must be released
from the original sentence of death which came upon all through the sin
of Adam.
This is accomplished through the sacrificial
death of Jesus. Paul wrote, “By one man’s disobedience many were made
sinners, so by the obedience of one [Jesus] shall many be made
righteous.” (Rom. 5:19) In Romans 6:23 Paul writes, “For the wages of
sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ
our Lord.”
The eternal life which will reach the world
through Jesus will be realized through the resurrection. Again Paul
wrote, “Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits
of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man also the
resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ
shall all be made alive.”—I Cor. 15:20,22
In I Timothy 2:3-6 the Apostle Paul uses the
word “ransom” to describe the redemptive work of Christ. In the Greek
text the word used by Paul means “a price to correspond.” It was the
perfect man, Adam, who sinned and was sentenced to death. It was the
perfect man Jesus who, in obedience to the divine will, gave his life
in sacrifice for the sins of the world. This was “a price to
correspond.” The Prophet Isaiah wrote that Jesus “poured out his soul
unto death.” Isaiah also wrote of Jesus that “he shall see the travail
of his soul, and shall be satisfied.”—Isa. 53:12,11
We quote Paul’s explanation of the work of
redemption in the passage already cited (I Tim. 2:3-6): “For this is
good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior; who will have all
men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there
is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.”
Yes, Jesus gave himself a ransom for all, and
this great fact of the divine plan of salvation for a lost race will be
testified, or made known, to all in due time. For the vast majority of
mankind this “due time” will be during the millennial reign of Christ
and his faithful followers. It will be then that the knowledge of the
Lord will fill the earth as the waters cover the sea; and it will be
then that the Lord will turn to the people a pure message that they may
all call upon his name and serve him with one consent.—Isa. 11:9; Zeph.
3:9
As we have noted, the fulfillment of God’s
promises to bless all mankind with an opportunity to live forever
necessitates a resurrection of the dead. In the resurrection sonic will
receive a heavenly life, but the vast majority will be raised from the
.dead as humans, and given an opportunity to live on the earth forever.
Jesus said to his followers, “If I go and prepare a place for you, I
will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye
may be also.” (John 14:3) This promise by Jesus has been misconstrued
to mean that all who obtain life through him will spend eternity in a
heavenly home which he prepares for them.
But this is not the thought at all. This
promise is made only to Jesus’ footstep followers; those who will be
associated with him in his future, work of blessing the remainder of
the world of mankind. These are promised “glory, and honor, and
immortality.” (Rom. 2:7) They are promised a heavenly inheritance. The
Apostle Peter wrote: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again
unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not
away, reserved in heaven for you.”—I Pet. 1:3,4
These will be brought forth in what the Bible
describes as “the first resurrection.” Naturally, these must be the
first to be resurrected, for they are to be associated with Jesus in
the blessing of mankind in general. They are to live and reign with
Christ a thousand years, and the purpose of that reign is, as explained
by the Apostle, to destroy death. Paul wrote that Christ “must reign
till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall
be destroyed is death.”—I Cor. 15:25,26
As we have noted, mankind in general is to be
restored to life on the earth as humans. God created man to live on the
earth, not in heaven. The few to whom a heavenly reward will be given
are those who, through their faithfulness in laying down their lives in
sacrifice, prove worthy to be associated with Jesus in the work of the
messianic kingdom. But the earth was created to be man’s home, and it
is on the earth that he will be given an opportunity to live forever.
Isaiah wrote that God created the earth “not in vain,” but “formed it
to be inhabited.”—Isa. 45:18
The Apostle Peter referred to that period of
time in the divine plan when the work of restoring mankind to life will
be accomplished as “the times of restitution of all things,” which, he
said, had been declared “by the mouth of all his [God’s] holy prophets
since the world began.” (Acts 3:19-21) And it is true that the holy
prophets of the Old Testament were eloquent in their prophecies of this
coming time of restoration for the world of mankind.
They affirmed that as a result of this work
of restoration there would be no more blind eyes; none would be lame;
that the ransomed of the Lord would return from death with songs of
everlasting joy upon their heads, and that “sorrow and sighing will
flee away.” (Isa. 35) Isaiah also wrote, “He [the Lord] will swallow up
death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all
faces.” (Isa. 25:8) Isaiah also wrote that the people in that day when
God is blessing all the families of the earth will not say, “I am
sick.”—Isa. 33:24
In the Book of Revelation the Apostle John
tells of a vision he was given of the manner in which the people would
be blessed during the time of Christ’s kingdom, and he wrote, “God
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more
death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more
pain: for the former things are passed away.”—Rev. 21:4
The first ones to be restored to life as
humans will be the ancient prophets, and other faithful ones of ages
past. These will come forth in “a better resurrection,” as it is
described in the Bible, and will be perfect humans from the start.
(Heb. 11:35,40) These are the “fathers” referred to in Psalm 45:16, who
are to become the children of Christ in the resurrection, and we are
told that they will be made “princes in all the earth.”
These, we understand, will be the human
representatives of the divine Christ. Jesus said of these that the
people would come from the east and from the west, and would sit down
with them in the kingdom—they will sit down with them, that is, as
pupils before their teacher. And they will “sit down” thus to learn the
ways of the Lord, the laws of the new kingdom, the messianic
kingdom.—Luke 13:28,29; Matt. 8:11
And what a boon restitution will be for the
redeemed world of mankind! As the work of restitution continues it will
eventually reach out to bless “all the families of the earth,” even as
God promised to Abraham. Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,
Moses, and all the prophets will be on the scene to direct the affairs
of the kingdom. The findings of the archeologists will not then be
needed to verify the records of the Bible, for the ones who made those
records will be personally present to vouch for them.
The people of the whole world will then know
that these ancient men of renown, these faithful servants of God, were
not myths, not imaginary people in fairy tales, but real men and women
of God who willingly died in the service of the One who had promised to
bless all the families of the earth.
This future joy of mankind will be very
literal! There will be plenty of time for those “princes in all the
earth” not only to direct the affairs of the kingdom, but also, if they
choose, to relate some of their past experiences in serving the Lord.
Who would not like to hear Noah tell of some of his experiences in
building the ark?
We can only surmise the, details of joy which
may be experienced in that new day. But we can be sure that they will
be more wonderful than any or all of our dreams; for God, who so loved
his human creatures as to give his Son in death that all might have an
opportunity to live again, will see to it that his promises to bless
all mankind are carried out in full measure. Nothing will be lacking,
for he will open his hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.
And what will the reaction of the people be?
Isaiah wrote, “It shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we
have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have
waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”—Isa. 25:9
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